The good, the bad and the ugly from the road trip to Oxford

swampsting

swampsting

Now with incredulous facial expression
Joined
Dec 8, 2007
Messages
8,815
First, the good.
The Grove was all it was cracked up to be. Ole Miss wins at tailgating, folks. And at a few other things.
Also good – seemed to be a strong and vocal contingent of Tech fans there too.
Two plays after not seeing a wide open tight end in the back right of the end zone and instead throwing a contested catch ball at the goal line, King saw Singleton on almost the same route for a wide open catch and score.
I-22 from Birmingham to Tupelo. Nice drive. A damn breeze.
The Grove so lived it up to its hype it bears mentioning again. Son of a gun.

The bad:
Atlanta traffic Friday afternoon. Hit the ever-present crawl around Hudson Bridge about 2:30 and it was stop and go on the connector trying to get on 20 West.
That DJ got on my nerves pretty quickly. Didn’t like them drowning out the “Budweiser” chant at the start of the fourth quarter. It's their stadium, so I get it.
The no holding call on the fake punt. Was that ever explained? And why didn’t CBK go ballistic? I've been on the road all day, so if it has been covered in another thread, I have not had a chance to see it.

The ugly:
The defense. Again. And a complete collapse in the space of seven minutes in the fourth quarter.
 
swampsting said:
First, the good.
The Grove was all it was cracked up to be. Ole Miss wins at tailgating, folks. And at a few other things.
Also good – seemed to be a strong and vocal contingent of Tech fans there too.
Two plays after not seeing a wide open tight end in the back right of the end zone and instead throwing a contested catch ball at the goal line, King saw Singleton on almost the same route for a wide open catch and score.
I-22 from Birmingham to Tupelo. Nice drive. A damn breeze.
The Grove so lived it up to its hype it bears mentioning again. Son of a gun.

The bad:
Atlanta traffic Friday afternoon. Hit the ever-present crawl around Hudson Bridge about 2:30 and it was stop and go on the connector trying to get on 20 West.
That DJ got on my nerves pretty quickly. Didn’t like them drowning out the “Budweiser” chant at the start of the fourth quarter. It's their stadium, so I get it.
The no holding call on the fake punt. Was that ever explained? And why didn’t CBK go ballistic? I've been on the road all day, so if it has been covered in another thread, I have not had a chance to see it.

The ugly:
The defense. Again. And a complete collapse in the space of seven minutes in the fourth quarter.
Click to expand...
He did get in the ear of the referee about the missed defensive hold on the fake punt.
 
swampsting said:
First, the good.
The Grove was all it was cracked up to be. Ole Miss wins at tailgating, folks. And at a few other things.
Also good – seemed to be a strong and vocal contingent of Tech fans there too.
Two plays after not seeing a wide open tight end in the back right of the end zone and instead throwing a contested catch ball at the goal line, King saw Singleton on almost the same route for a wide open catch and score.
I-22 from Birmingham to Tupelo. Nice drive. A damn breeze.
The Grove so lived it up to its hype it bears mentioning again. Son of a gun.

The bad:
Atlanta traffic Friday afternoon. Hit the ever-present crawl around Hudson Bridge about 2:30 and it was stop and go on the connector trying to get on 20 West.
That DJ got on my nerves pretty quickly. Didn’t like them drowning out the “Budweiser” chant at the start of the fourth quarter. It's their stadium, so I get it.
The no holding call on the fake punt. Was that ever explained? And why didn’t CBK go ballistic? I've been on the road all day, so if it has been covered in another thread, I have not had a chance to see it.

The ugly:
The defense. Again. And a complete collapse in the space of seven minutes in the fourth quarter.
Click to expand...
On TV. Key DID go ballistic
 
swampsting said:
Couldn't tell from the seats.
Click to expand...
The TV DID show that, but with the exception of one brief shot of the Tech cheerleaders, nobody watching the game on TV would have known there was a single Tech fan at the game. I have heard there were actually quite a few, but the SEC network never bothered to show them.
 
Supersize that order mutt said:
The TV DID show that, but with the exception of one brief shot of the Tech cheerleaders, nobody watching the game on TV would have known there was a single Tech fan at the game. I have heard there were actually quite a few, but the SEC network never bothered to show them.
Click to expand...
Seemed to be a good number of Tech fans in Oxford
We got seats not too terribly far from most of the faithful. Mostly surrounded by Rebels had a couple of Tech fans right behind us
 
swampsting said:
First, the good.
The Grove was all it was cracked up to be. Ole Miss wins at tailgating, folks. And at a few other things.
Also good – seemed to be a strong and vocal contingent of Tech fans there too.
Two plays after not seeing a wide open tight end in the back right of the end zone and instead throwing a contested catch ball at the goal line, King saw Singleton on almost the same route for a wide open catch and score.
I-22 from Birmingham to Tupelo. Nice drive. A damn breeze.
The Grove so lived it up to its hype it bears mentioning again. Son of a gun.

The bad:
Atlanta traffic Friday afternoon. Hit the ever-present crawl around Hudson Bridge about 2:30 and it was stop and go on the connector trying to get on 20 West.
That DJ got on my nerves pretty quickly. Didn’t like them drowning out the “Budweiser” chant at the start of the fourth quarter. It's their stadium, so I get it.
The no holding call on the fake punt. Was that ever explained? And why didn’t CBK go ballistic? I've been on the road all day, so if it has been covered in another thread, I have not had a chance to see it.

The ugly:
The defense. Again. And a complete collapse in the space of seven minutes in the fourth quarter.
Click to expand...

Agree with all of the above.
We had a good following. Filled our corner section out very well. And, we were loud.

The Grove was worth the experience, and the people were very nice and mostly sober.
Seeing 50,000 women (49,000 blonde) in red dresses was not bad, either.
 
I thought it was amazing. By far best away game atmosphere anyone could ask for. We showed up.
 
We drove in from our hotel in Tupelo and took a quick spin around the stadium area and the perimeter of the Grove about an hour and a half before the game.

Campus seems nice from what we saw of it. There were a LOT of their fans out around, and not a single person harassed us, which was nice. The Grove looks nuts - we didn’t wade into it but kind of walked around the edge to get a sense of it.

They could use some directional signage around the stadium, but other than that, no complaints. Got in easy, weather was beautiful. Seats in the Tech section were pretty good - we were mostly in the upper half of the bowl on the visitor sideline from like the end zone to the 15 yard line. Very good Tech turnout. J Batt came by shaking hands right as we sat down.

Stadium atmosphere was good - there was loud music but much less intrusive than at home. Not much advertising that I can recall. They didn’t really seem to have any annoying traditions (well, they have a cannon). I liked that they had the incoming freshman class run down the sideline before the game. Announcer was OK and called us “the Rambling Wreck” a few times, which was cool.

Walk to the car was easy enough and quiet. Their traffic plan could use some work - we were forced away from the highway and just had to kind of fend for ourselves through Oxford.

All in all, a very pleasant trip other than the outcome - wouldn’t mind doing it again.

JRjr
 
I’ve known a few Ole Miss alumni over the years. Mostly good folk, fun to be around, and football is still a game to them. One they like to win, but a game still. I’ve been through Oxford but never to the stadium. I’d like to go sometime.
 
You know why they didn't harass us? They think of us like we are damn Central Mississippi State College or something. You can bet the treatment is different for Bamalama or LSU or Mississippi State.
 
Got a Grove pic I’m working on posting (stupid .heic format)
Stayed in Tupelo as well. Not a bad drive to Oxford
Walked around square in downtown Oxford for a bit. Had a couple of beers at The Library, ran into some of the Savannah-based Tech fans
My buddy has gotten to be good friends with an Ole Miss booster so we parked at his place and went to The Grove from there
Grove was much more expansive than I thought
Definitely planning a return trip
 
JJacket said:
You know why they didn't harass us? They think of us like we are damn Central Mississippi State College or something. You can bet the treatment is different for Bamalama or LSU or Mississippi State.
Click to expand...
No I don't believe so. Mississippi State, maybe. But anybody else I doubt it. And I think the 50,000 number above was low. I've heard it's closer to 100k in the grove and I believe it. You just can't understand it unless you go. It's not just a lot of tents with 4-5 people under each watching other games on a tv or cooking. The square footage of the grove is bigger than the stadium footprint and folks are packed in there nearly nut-to-butt everywhere. There is a constant haze of dust because it's like a slow motion stampede. Again, there is no good way to describe it, you just have to go. And like stated previously, 99.9% of them were all extremely nice and welcoming. I can't tell you how many times I heard, "welcome to Oxford" or "are you guys having a good time?" etc.

There was one asshole. We were following a group of players parents to greet the team coming in off the buses, and got sort of lost in the middle of the grove. There are "streets" but when you get in the middle and can't get to one, you just sort of have to cut thru and around some tents. We were going thru the very end corner of one groups tent, not in anybody's way or anything, just trying to make it out to the road and some guy comes up and stands in the way and moves a trash can to block the way. I moved it out of the way so folks could get through, he said "what are you doing? go another way!" very rudely. I said those are players parents and they're trying to find their way to the team buses. He said, "I dont care who they are." I laughed and told him that out of the 100k folks I had seen that day, he was the only asshole in the bunch. He had no words and his friends started chuckling at him. Needless to say everybody else cut thru his tent.

Talking to another guy waiting for the porta-potty, I asked how many of those folks don't go into the game? He said most of them don't. They typically have more outside the stadium than inside. He said he hadn't missed a game since he was a child but had never actually been in the stadium to watch it. I'm telling you, Clemson, Athens, nowhere has öööö on the Grove. If if wasn't for Kiffin and them luring GT kids in the portal, they'd probably be my #2 team just because of their fans and the grove.
 
GoGATech said:
No I don't believe so. Mississippi State, maybe. But anybody else I doubt it. And I think the 50,000 number above was low. I've heard it's closer to 100k in the grove and I believe it. You just can't understand it unless you go. It's not just a lot of tents with 4-5 people under each watching other games on a tv or cooking. The square footage of the grove is bigger than the stadium footprint and folks are packed in there nearly nut-to-butt everywhere. There is a constant haze of dust because it's like a slow motion stampede. Again, there is no good way to describe it, you just have to go. And like stated previously, 99.9% of them were all extremely nice and welcoming. I can't tell you how many times I heard, "welcome to Oxford" or "are you guys having a good time?" etc.

There was one asshole. We were following a group of players parents to greet the team coming in off the buses, and got sort of lost in the middle of the grove. There are "streets" but when you get in the middle and can't get to one, you just sort of have to cut thru and around some tents. We were going thru the very end corner of one groups tent, not in anybody's way or anything, just trying to make it out to the road and some guy comes up and stands in the way and moves a trash can to block the way. I moved it out of the way so folks could get through, he said "what are you doing? go another way!" very rudely. I said those are players parents and they're trying to find their way to the team buses. He said, "I dont care who they are." I laughed and told him that out of the 100k folks I had seen that day, he was the only asshole in the bunch. He had no words and his friends started chuckling at him. Needless to say everybody else cut thru his tent.

Talking to another guy waiting for the porta-potty, I asked how many of those folks don't go into the game? He said most of them don't. They typically have more outside the stadium than inside. He said he hadn't missed a game since he was a child but had never actually been in the stadium to watch it. I'm telling you, Clemson, Athens, nowhere has öööö on the Grove. If if wasn't for Kiffin and them luring GT kids in the portal, they'd probably be my #2 team just because of their fans and the grove.
Click to expand...
I'd prefer my experience at FSU in 2009 where I was berated and harassed all day long by FSU douchebags and then JFN went out and beat their ass.
 
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